Melody (33 page)

“No,” he said quickly. Too quickly, I thought.

“Then, I'll just have to ask our grandparents to tell me everything.”

He turned, a look of disbelief on his face.

“You wouldn't just come out and ask them?”

“Why not?”

“Grandma Olivia can be . . . tough.”

“So can I,” I said firmly. “When I have to be.”

He laughed.

“Maybe you shouldn't, Melody,” he said after a moment,
his smile gone. “Maybe some things are better left below deck.”

“Secrets fester like infections. After a while they make you deathly sick, Cary. That's the way I feel. It's the way you felt when people were making up stories about you and Laura,” I said searching for a way to make him understand how important it was to me.

“I tell you what,” he said, reaching for my hand. “I'll make you a promise. I promise to try to find out as much as I can about your parents, too.”

“Will you? Oh thank you, Cary.”

He held on to my hand. “It's okay,” he said. “You're probably right. You probably should know everything there is to know about the Logan family.”

I smiled at him. “When I first came here, I thought you hated me.”

“I did,” he confessed. “I knew why my mother wanted you here and I felt bad about it, but. . .”

“But?”

“You're very nice,” he said. “And the only cousin I have, so I have to put up with you.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Let's check the dress,” he said and got up. “It's not completely dry, but it's dry enough. You'll get by with it.”

“Thanks,” I said rising. He handed me the dress and I started to take off the raincoat.

“I'll wait outside,” he said.

I changed, hung up the raincoat, and joined him on the deck.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Tired and wobbly, but a hundred percent better than I did, thanks to you.”

“Let's go home,” he said taking my hand. He didn't let go until we were at the house.

“How do I look?” I asked him, brushing back my hair.

“Fine,” he said gazing at me in the glow of the porch light.

Uncle Jacob was in the hallway when we entered. He was heading for the living room with a mug of tea in his hand. He paused and looked at us, his eyes growing small and dark.

“Where were you two?” he asked.

“I met Melody coming back from studying with her friend,” Cary said quickly.

Uncle Jacob's gaze shifted from Cary to me and then back to Cary before he continued toward the living room.

“Get home as soon as you can tomorrow,” he said. “Lots to do.”

“Okay,” Cary said.

Aunt Sara appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“Oh, hi. Is everything all right?”

“Yes, Aunt Sara,” I said. “I'm tired and going to sleep.”

“Good night, dear,” she said.

Cary followed me up the stairs.

“I'm sorry you had to tell your father a lie, Cary,” I told him at my door.

“It was only half a lie,” he said. “You were on the way home.” He smiled.

“Good night and thanks again,” I said. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He blushed. I flashed the best smile I could and retreated to my room. He was still standing in the hallway when I closed the door. I heard him pull down his attic steps and go upstairs.

I changed and dressed for bed. I hated the sight of myself in the mirror and wondered if those shadows under my eyes would be gone by morning. Nothing felt as good as the mattress and covers. My eyelids were like two steel doors slamming shut. The last thing I remembered was wishing Cary hadn't lied for me. It all starts with little half lies and then it grows until, until. . . you become like Mommy and lose track of the difference.

It won't happen to me, I vowed.

It won't.

The chant worked like a lullaby. The next thing I knew, I was fluttering my eyelids at the flood of sunlight penetrating the window curtains and nudging me to start another day.

14
 
A Helpless Creature

Unfortunately, Cary wasn't right about Adam Jackson. It was true that his ego had been bruised, but his embarrassment over my rejecting him turned into something uglier. By the time Cary and I had arrived at school, Adam's lies had spread like a brush fire in a drought. The moment I saw the expressions on the faces of girls like Lorraine, Janet, and Betty, I knew something mean and vicious had been poured into their ears and would soon be poured into mine.

As soon as we entered the building, Cary sensed the negative electricity in the air. He hovered about me like a nervous grizzly bear. Usually, when we arrived at school, he would scamper away to join his few friends, but today Cary lingered at my side while I organized my things at my locker. Nearby, the girls watched us, giggling. Other boys walking by held smirks on their faces and twisted their lips as they whispered. I marveled at how completely Cary could ignore everyone when he wanted to. For him, they didn't exist at the moment. He heard no evil and saw no evil. If he looked in their direction, he gazed right through them.

“Good morning, Cary,” Betty said as she passed us with Lorraine and Janet.

“Good morning, Cary,” Lorraine echoed.

“Good morning, Cary,” Janet mimicked.

Something slippery and ugly obviously was hidden beneath their wide smiles. Cary didn't respond. He escorted me to my homeroom and was there at the sound of the bell to walk with me to my next class.

“You don't have to be worried about me,” I told Cary after I found him waiting in the hallway outside my first period classroom.

“Oh, I'm . . . not,” he fumbled. “I was just nearby and thought I might as well walk along with you as with anyone.”

“Thanks a lot,” I said, smiling at his clumsy effort to explain his presence.

“I mean, I like walking with you, it's just that—”

“You're usually too busy?”

“Yes,” he said, grateful for my suggestion.

Although he wasn't there after my next period ended, he wasn't far behind in the corridor. It was nice having him look after me. For the moment at least, I felt as if I had a brother.

In my classes and in the hallway when I passed from room to room, I noticed how the girls kept their distance, and in class, I saw them looking at me and passing notes. But no one said anything. When I entered the cafeteria at lunch time, however, I found Janet, Lorraine, and Betty waiting anxiously, their eyes sparkling with glee.

“You're kind of cozy with Grandpa today,” Betty teased immediately. “Any special reason?” She swung her eyes toward her friends.

“Cozy? I don't know what you mean,” I replied. I stepped toward the counter to get a container of milk, but I caught the way they traded smiles and glances as they moved behind me in the lunch line.

“We heard you've taken Laura's place in more ways
than one,” Janet whispered in my ear. It made the hairs on my neck stick up.

“What?” I turned to confront them.

“You're still carrying her notebook,” Lorraine pointed out, “and you wear her clothes.”

“You sleep in her room, use her things,” Betty recited.

“And whatever she did with Cary, you're doing,” Janet concluded.

I felt the blood rush so quickly to my face, my cheeks burned.

“Whatever she did with Cary? What's that supposed to mean?” I demanded.

“You know.” Betty rolled her eyes.

“I don't know because my mind isn't in the gutter. What are you saying? Who told you these things?”

“Who else, but the eyewitness?” Betty said with the firmness of a prosecutor. She nodded toward Adam Jackson who had come in with his crowd of buddies. He strutted across the cafeteria, his shoulders back, his face full of himself when he glanced my way. I saw a wicked, twisted smile take shape on those perfect lips.

“Eyewitness?”

“No sense pretending with us anymore,” Lorraine said stepping closer to me. “Adam told us what he found you two doing on the beach last night.”

“He did what?”

“He said he was riding in his motorboat, saw the bonfire and pulled up before you two had a chance to make it look innocent,” Betty detailed.

“He told you that?”

“Surprised he told?” Janet asked.

“He described how you begged him not to, and promised him something good if he didn't,” Betty added.

“Is that what you did back in coal country, bribed boys with your body?” Lorraine asked.

I tried to speak, but the words choked in my throat. I shook my head instead. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cary watching with concern. He looked as if he was
about to get up. Panic nailed my feet to the floor, but I knew I had to do something and fast, otherwise there would be a terrible scene in front of the whole student body.

“Those are lies,” I finally said. “The real truth is he's just angry at me for not doing what he wanted me to do on the beach last night. Really!”

“Really?” Betty quipped. “Is that why you and Grandpa are like two peas in a pod today? Practically holding hands? If he were any closer to you, he'd be under your dress.”

“It's disgusting,” Janet followed. “You're first cousins, aren't you?”

“The Logans give the Cape a bad name,” Lorraine declared. The other two nodded.

“What are you waiting for?” Betty said, shifting her eyes toward Cary. “He's waiting for you. The two of you can hold hands under the table. Or do whatever else you do.”

The three laughed and moved ahead to get their food. The moment they did, other girls gathered around them to feed on the gossip like chickens in a pen.

I felt my heart pounding. Everyone was looking at me, waiting to see what I was going to do. Cary was still watching from the table where he sat with his two friends, an expression of deep concern on his face. I hesitated. If I went to him, all these tongues would surely cluck, but sitting with the girls today was like putting myself in a Roman Coliseum. They would eat me alive.

“Aren't you going to sit with him?” Janet asked nodding in Cary's direction as she carried her tray past me.

Theresa was walking by with her friends.

“I promised Theresa I would sit with her today,” I said loud enough for her to hear. She turned with a look of surprise, but lost it quickly when she saw the expression on my face and the three witches from
Macbeth
closing in. She waited for me to join her.

“Thanks,” I whispered. “I especially don't want to sit
with them today. All they want to do is make fun of Cary and me,” I explained.

“Oh.” She wore a knowing look.

When we were at the table and had taken our sandwiches from our bags, I leaned closer to her. “Why did you say ‘oh,' like that?” I asked. “Did you hear dirty gossip, too?”

“There's never a bad day's catch when it comes to dirty gossip around here,” she said, “especially when it's about Cary Logan. He and Laura were often the hot topic around here.”

“Why?”

“There are other brothers and sisters here, dozens,” she continued gesturing at the students in the cafeteria, “but none of them behaved as if they had invisible handcuffs tying them together. Anyone will tell you, so it's not like I'm letting a two-pound lobster out of the trap. If Cary could have followed her into the girls' room, I think he would have.”

“Wasn't that all just an exaggeration?”

“No. They came to school together, they sat next to each other in every class, they sat with each other at lunch time, they sat with each other in the library, they left school together. The first time I saw Laura at a school party, she came with Cary,” Theresa added, “and even danced with him. She danced with a couple of other boys, but she danced with her brother first.”

“Maybe he thought she was too shy and just wanted to make her comfortable, or maybe he was too shy,” I said. There had to be a hundred other reasons besides the one she was suggesting.

Theresa snorted.

“Well, she did have a boyfriend, didn't she?” I pointed out.

She bit into her sandwich and then shook her head.

“You really are like a stranger to your own family, aren't you?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“When Laura started to see Robert Royce, it was a comedy show for these gossips. Cary would sit by himself or with those nerdy friends across the cafeteria and glare at Laura and Robert. He plodded through the hallways with a chin down to his ankles. The other boys started teasing him and he got into a few fights.”

I looked across the cafeteria at him and saw he was still staring at me with deep concern. My heart beat in triple time. Had he heard the stories about us?

“So now that Laura's gone, they just picked up on you,” Theresa said.

“With someone else's help,” I added glaring across the cafeteria at Adam. He was obviously elaborating on his lies, gesturing emphatically and nodding in Cary's direction.